Ratbikes and Topix

A few things today...

"RatBikes?" what the hell? Actually a fairly kool concept, keep yer moto full-on grunge. "Ratbikes are the ultimate distilled evolution of motorcycling: No Bullsh*t involved. Just do the minimum to keep them healthy and Ride. Let your bike wear it's visual history with pride. No time consuming cleaning, washing, polishing, adding shiny parts that do nothing. None of that, forget about it! Embrace The Pure and Essential Essence of Riding - Ride A Ratbike!"
A Preeeety wild gallery of RatBikes. Not sure one of these is right for me, but they sure look funny. 8-)
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We were curious how the breakdown of posts by topic from blogs would differ from mainstream media, and were blown away by the contrasts.

Hope you are well!
Charlie

10 Reasons Why Gay Marriage is Wrong

Awesome post from the Best of CraigsList. I guess Texas is voting on this now/soon? Rock on!

10 Reasons Why Gay Marriage is Wrong

1. Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

2. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

3. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

4. Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

5. Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

6. Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.

7. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

8. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.

9. Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

10. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

a few links to kool stuff...

"What the fuck is in the box?!" This is bloody hilarious! I love Shatner.

WOW. This is nasty... "Why haven't we seen this?" So do you think Bush's actions help this situation or stoke the fires?

"We have a strategy drawn up for the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization... we must make use of everything we have at hand to strike at this front by means of our suicide operations or by means of our missiles. There are 29 sensitive sites in the U.S. and in the West. We have already spied on these sites and we know how we are going to attack them."
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We're packaging together some of the world's coolest and funniest cartoons and sending them straight to your iPod each week. - NICE!
http://www.channelfrederator.com
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Nice... Info on new developments in Absinthe.
Absinthe was first distilled in 1792 in Switzerland, where it was marketed as a medicinal elixir, a cure for stomach ailments. High concentrations of chlorophyll gave it a rich olive color. In the 19th century, people began turning to the minty drink less for pains of the stomach than for pains of the soul. Absinthe came to be associated with artists and Moulin Rouge bohemians. Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Van Gogh, and Picasso were devotees. Toulouse-Lautrec carried some in a hollowed-out cane. Oscar Wilde wrote, "What difference is there between a glass of absinthe and a sunset?" Soon absinthe was the social lubricant of choice for a broad swath of Europeans - artists and otherwise. In 1874, the French sipped 700,000 liters of the stuff; by the turn of the century, consumption had shot up to 36 million liters, driven in part by a phylloxera infestation that had devastated the wine-grape harvest.

By the early 20th century, absinthe was becoming popular in America. It found a natural reception in New Orleans, where the bon temps were already rolling. Breaux's own great-grandparents were known to enjoy an occasional glass. But the drink was drawing fire for its thujone content. "It is truly madness in a bottle, and no habitual drinker can claim that he will not become a criminal," declared one politician. The anti-absinthe fervor climaxed in 1905, when Swiss farmer Jean Lanfray shot his pregnant wife and two daughters after downing two glasses. (Overlooked was what else Lanfray consumed that day: crème de menthe, cognac, seven glasses of wine, coffee with brandy, and another liter of wine.) By the end of World War I, the "green menace" was made illegal everywhere in western Europe except Spain. No reputable distillery still made it.

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Ah, what a life...

2 days, boy gets 2 toys.


Friday my new work gives me a blackberry 7100t to keep connected with the team and clients. I've wanted a email/calendar phone for a while... I was thinking a Palm 650 like most of my pals, but a free blackberry? No prob... 8-)



When we were in Argentina in September, my lovely wife Marcela gave her iPod mini to her sister... she's been without Shakira, Shania Twain, Cheyenne and Luis Miguel for a few weeks... ouch. 8-) So she's had it in her mind to pick up a new ipod... the new Nano was calling her name.... Today I took her to the Apple store, in looking them over, [DAMN they are small and sexy] I decided that I wanted a flash based player [my excuse was to get my lazy ass running/biking more, really they are just too sweet to not play with] so I wouldn't have to worry about my hard drive based 3rd generation 40 gig iPod. Plus they are soooo kool I found them difficult to resist.... I decided that I'd sell my 40gig iPod and pick up a new black 4 gig Nano, just like my woman. So we are both now owners of new black beauties. I've loaded Argentina trip pictures and tons of music on mine already... and we got one of those kool lanyard things that are headphones, and go around your neck to hold the nano... clever.

Casualties of the Bush Administration

Do your job, get busted down or fired. Ouch.
How's things with you all? We are busy, house stuff, job stuff etc. Marcela will be helping to manage a new rest/cafe downtown called the "Buenos Aires Cafe"!!! whoohoo. A friend of hers from Argentina is opening it... this lady also helped us with food and desserts for our wedding... good stuff. Argentina beer, empanadas, pastries, tea/mate, and more... It's opening in a few weeks. I'll keep you informed!

Charlie y Marcela

Wow. I really just can't believe it.

Okay I'm trying to be a little more generous with Pres. Bush and his policies, mainly because I'm SO tired of bitching about him and his actions. I'm just bloody worn out by all of it. sigh.

Then I take a look at CNN and MSNBC today... he's nomitating a person that has never even been a judge to the supreme court! Her main qualification is that she thinks Bush is "the most brilliant man I've ever met" and is unfailingly loyal to him. I just can't believe that he just has NO FREAKIN' SHAME. Wow. I'm just wondering if they'll be a bigger backlash or will she sail on to confirmation? Will democratic and republican politicians with a backbone actually say something? Will the press (that's finally asking some of the hard questions that it should have been doing all along) actually challenge the logic of this? We shall see.

On another amuzing note, you may have seen some bumper stickers in the last few months that say "How many lives per gallon?" I admit, I bought a few. To me, they represent that this Iraq thing is really about preferential treatment for Iraq's oil production (you'll see why I need to explain what it represents to me) and that it's costing american lives to drive big suv's and trucks with poor gas milage. So I drive by a gas station to get some soda yesterday, and I see this Ford Excursion with that sticker on it..... I'm a little puzzled why a huge gas guzzling suv has a sticker (to me) criticizing itself. Ideas on what the guy is thinking? 8-)

Anyway, the job hunt is on, and like the allied invasion of europe during WW2, i'm attacking it on multiple fronts: consulting for online marketing and search SEO and PPC as well as looking for a new full time marketing management job... all the while working on a few business ideas/plans. I'll let ya know how it goes. 8-)

Charlie

Hey Pals!

Not a lot of big news lately, but here is a summary of what's new with Charlie and Marcela.

- We got back from Buenos Aires last week okay. Long flight, but now we are almost unpacked and getting settled back into the house.
- We've both got about a MILLION things to do, from budgets to painting bathrooms, organizing boxes we just moved in, to hanging new closet racks... wow. busy stuff.
- Marcela is starting to think about what she'd like to do, from event managemet to helping out spanish speakers with legal or other troubles... ideas for her?
- As many of you know, my workplace is downsizing, (more or less closing for new business) and I'm now starting to look for other opportunities... I have a 3 pronged attack plan, so I think things will work out okay!
1. Pursue freelance Search Engine and Marketing Consulting. "Have a site, but don't see it on Google? I can fix that."
2. Catch up with old friends and co-workers, network for a new full time gig.
3. Work on the business plan for my personal identity theft product/company idea... I'm sure you'll hear more on this soon. If you have been a victim of any type of identity theft, please drop me a note, I'd like to hear about it.

Anyway, that's the main focus of our days... 8-)

Have a great week!
Charlie

Your wife/accountant does NOT want you to see this

Wow, Amazing monitors... here's to us all winning the lottery!
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A BRILLIANT article you SHOULD READ!

Bravo to Ms. Henneberger! I've been thinking on exactly this subject for a while... my ire has been directed at all the gold and art in the vatican, but the same point with us lazy americans. Between this great article, and several by Fareed Zakariah, I think I'll be subscribing to Newsweek soon.
Any Comments?
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Overturning the Gospels

Katrina has reminded us that Christian morality should be about responding to the wretched and loving the unlovable—not about other people’s sex lives.

By Melinda Henneberger
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We as a nation—a proudly, increasingly loudly Christian nation—have somehow convinced ourselves that the selfish choice is usually the moral one, too. (What a deal!) You know how this works: It's wrong to help poor people because "handouts'' reward dependency and thus hurt more than they help. So, do the right thing—that is, walk right on by—and by all means hang on to your hard-earned cash.

Thus do we deny the working poor a living wage, resent welfare recipients expected to live on a few hundred dollars a month, object to the whopping .16 percent of our GNP that goes to foreign aid—and still manage to feel virtuous about all of the above.

Which is how "Christian'' morality got to be all about other people's sex lives—and incredibly easy lifting compared to what Jesus actually asks of us. Defending traditional marriage? A breeze. Living in one? Less so. Telling gay people what they can't do? Piece o' cake. But responding to the wretched? Loving the unlovable? Forgiving the ever-so-occasionally annoying people you actually know? Hard work, as our president would say, and rather more of a stretch.

... more after the link...

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Hope you are all well. We are back in Buenos Aires after a week of traveling by car to the northwest area of Argentina! It was great, and very different from the rest of the country that we've seen before. We saw spectacular desserts and mountains with amazing colors in the dirt and rocks. We also learned about many of the indiginous peoples that still survive there and their history. Inca invastions as well as Spanish invasions and liberation of the country after that... good stuff.

We'll be back in Austin this weekend, looking forward to being back in our house! w00t! Anyone buying a new ipod? I'll also be on a new job hunt after 2.5 years! ouch. 8-)

Shalom!
Charlie

BA Update: Back in Bs. As. Argentina!

Hey all!

Hope you are all well. Marcela and I are back in Argentina for a few weeks. We are in Buenos Aires for a week, then up to the north west of the country, in the mountainous dessert area. I understand there are more native/indigenous people in that area, as most of the rest of the country has few native peoples. I'm really looking forward to seeing and learning more about them.

We'll fly in, then rent a car to drive around to Salta, Tucuman and the JuyJuy areas. It's up near the border with Bolivia to the north, and Chile to the west. If I'm lucky, we'll get to go to one of those countries too, just a step over the border, like when we spent a day in Brazil.

Hope you are all well!
See you soon!
Charlie & Marcela